Natalie Angier knows all that scientists know - and sometimes more - about the power of symmetry in sexual relations, about the brutal courting habits of dolphins, about the grand deceit of orchids, about the impact of female and male preferences on evolution. She knows how scientists go about their work, and she describes their ways, their visions, and their arguments. Perhaps most poignantly, she understands the complexities and the sad necessity of death. "The beauty of the natural world lies in the details, and most of those details are not the stuff of calendar art," she points out. Few writers have ever covered so many facets of biology so evocatively in one book. The Beauty of the Beastly tells us how the genius of the biological universe resides in its details and proves why, according to Timothy Ferris, author of the acclaimed Coming of Age in the Milky Way, Angier is "one of the strongest and wittiest science writers in the world today."

纳塔莉・安吉尔

纳塔莉・安吉尔：《纽约时报》科普专栏作家，她把创造性和无穷探索的精神与机智幽默的文学风格结合起来，对大自然和生命本质进行深刻考察和思索，对人类最新科学成就进行通俗而又妙趣横生的综述。其杰出成就使她获得了新闻及科普文学的最高奖项――普利策奖、刘易斯・托马斯奖和美国科学进步协会奖。本书是其最为人所称道的代表作，在美国畅销不衰。